Lights and light bar assemblies for use as warning signals by emergency vehicles such as police cars and ambulances are well established in the art. Traditionally, light assemblies for such vehicles have been mounted to the roof of the vehicle. The roof location and the associated designs accomplish the primary objective of ensuring excellent visibility of the warning signals to the surrounding public when the lights are activated. However, roof-mounted lighting assemblies have significant drawbacks, including interference with the aerodynamics of the vehicle, increased turbulence at high speeds, increased noise, interference with vehicle handling, increased height, and easy identification of law enforcement vehicles. Further, roof mounting generally requires drilling or similar penetration into the roof of the vehicle, consequently decreasing the vehicle's resale value.
Due to the aforementioned drawbacks of roof-mounted light assemblies, several alternative warning light designs have been developed through the years. Some alternative warning light designs include mounting to the vehicle bumper, incorporating warning lights into existing vehicle light fixtures, mounting on the exterior of side mirrors, and mounting on the interior windshield of the vehicle. Generally, lights mounted to the front and/or rear windshield of a vehicle have been a popular and effective alternative design. Such positioning enables excellent visibility of the activated lights to the public. However, interior-mounted warning light assemblies have their own drawbacks, most notably light flashback into the vehicle when the lights are activated. To eliminate the potential for flashback, interior windshield mounted light assemblies are fitted with an opaque casing or hood that surrounds the bottom and rear sides of the warning light, thus serving as a barrier between the activated lights and the interior of the vehicle. Two such designs are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,106,185 to Neufeglise and U.S. Pat. No. 6,511,216 to Strickland. Though these shielding devices effectively eliminate flashback, operators have complained that the opaque housings can impair visibility through the upper portion of the windshield, especially the ability to properly observe overhead traffic lights and high mounted street signs. It is therefore an object of the present disclosure to provide a new light assembly shielding device that significantly reduces or eliminates flashback while not impairing the vehicle operator's range of vision through the windshield.